Wakatobi: Reptiles

We saw quite a few turtles at Wakatobi, all green turtles. Green turtles are apparently named for their green fat rather than being green on the outside. Historically, they’d been hunted by sailors for fresh meat, but thankfully people don’t eat turtle that much these days.

The turtles we came across were rather friendly, in that they didn’t mind us being around at all, even though we got in pretty close.

Sure, this one didn’t really do the eye contact on first meeting thing, but it’s good enough for me!

Here’s where DC’s super duper camera and mad camera skillz took over and he managed to get these pensive…

… and vaguely sulky photos of this green turtle. See how beautiful and true the colour is…

… compared to the one I took with the washed out blue cast. (I take full responsibility for not getting the settings right, but no amount of editing could sort this photo out, so I generally left it alone.)

And after a while, we got over our excitement and left that turtle. We delighted in others just passing by, like this one cruising along in the blue watching the coral wall go past.

A less friendly reptile was the banded sea snake. DC managed to get in nice and close to this one in a crevice. He’s so brave, I wouldn’t have the nerve! Check out its beautiful black and grey-blue scales.

It’s a very shy creature and doesn’t stick around much. I only managed a hasty shot that shows off its rounded head and rudder-like tail.

And off it went, not to be seen on the same dive again, while yet another green turtle looked on curiously.

Looks like some great diving, just a slight correction about your turles. The turtle in the top few photos is actually a Hawksbill turtle. You can tell by his beak, it resembles the beak of a bird of prey. They use them for eating coral and sponges, where the green turtle has a beak that is more flat used to eat grasses and plants (the turtle right above the sea snake photo). OK, sorry for the lesson. Keep diving and blowing bubbles.

If you find yourself out in Fiji drop a line, we’re always looking for new divers to dive with.
Cheers,
-Chris
scubadiverlife.wordpress.com

Thanks Chris. I always have a lot of difficulty figuring out the difference between hawksbills and greens. It’s not easy to tell from the beak, depending on the angle. Thanks for pointing it out. We were lucky to have seen it, considering that hawksbills are critically endangered.